Exxon Valdez

What was the disaster?
The disaster is oil spill. The oil spill can kill animals. Oil spills happen when people make mistakes or are careless and cause an oil tanker to leak oil into the ocean. There are a few more ways an oil spill can occur. Equipment breaking down may cause an oil spill. If the equipment breaks down, the tanker may get stuck on shallow land. Birds die from oil spills if their feathers are covered in oil. The bird will then be poisoned because it will try to clean itself. Animals may die because they get hypothermia, causing their body temperature to be really low. They may die from really low body temperature. Oil may also cause the death of an animal by entering the animal’s lungs or liver.
When was it?
The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989. When the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, hit Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled an estimated minimum 10.8 million US gallons of crude oil. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused environmental disasters ever to occur in history.
Where was it?
It was at Prince William Sound off the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska.

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